Indian Railway (IR) is planning to develop 23 new container rail terminals to increase the movement of export-import cargo. This includes the development of five terminals in Maharashtra, four in Tamil Nadu, three in Rajasthan, two in Haryana and two in Delhi. Further, the remaining terminals are likely to be built in Jharkhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Reportedly, IR has revised its guidelines to allow for container storage at terminals, under which higher terminal access charges for exceeding certain container loading levels will be replaced with a flat fee. Meanwhile, the handling of bulk cargo such as coal and iron ore will not be permitted at these facilities.
Besides, during 2023-24, IR achieved container traffic of 85.58 million tonnes (mt) and generated total freight revenue of Rs 1,682.76 billion.